Quotable Country – 02/03/13 Edition

Jack Clement isn’t in the Country Music Hall of Fame? What . . . the . . . f*ck! ●– – T Bone Burnett at the Cowboy Jack Clement tribute at Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium.

My mom cracked up when she heard it. I was worried that my Poppy wouldn’t think this was funny, but I played it for him and he thought it was “Weeds Instead of Roses.” He was like, “that’s great, that’s country: weeds, not roses.” So I was like “Phew! We’re good.” ●– – Ashley Monroe (in conversation with Juli Thanki) on the parental response to “Weed Instead of Roses.”

My lawyer was badass, man. I had a great lawyer. He’s bad, man. I’ll tell you what. You know that rich feller that cut somebody’s head off and then drove around New York with the head on the seat? My lawyer went and jumped in the car with him with that head right in the middle and talked him into coming in, and then he represented him and got him off.
If it wasn’t for him, I guess I’d be in jail. But everyone tried to railroad me. I was innocent, and I would’ve followed that all the way to the end of my life. ●– – Billy Joe Shaver, sounding somehow guiltier with the lawyer brag.

No one has a problem when Tim McGraw is in a movie. They love it; I love it. But when an actor comes to Nashville to play music he grew up with … I grew up 12 miles from Brad Paisley and six blocks from the Capital Music Hall, which is the second longest running Opry house, next to the Ryman. So for a guy to tell me I’m a carpetbagger when I’ve been singing Merle Haggard songs since I was seven, he can kiss my ass! ●– – Musician and “Sex and the City” actor John Corbett, whose new album is Leaving Nothin’ Behind.

Johnny Cash had a great voice, a distinctive voice that people would love no matter what song he was singing. I don’t think of myself as that kind of singer. I feel very lucky that my voice has been accepted, but it wouldn’t be if I was singing other people’s songs. I think people have very graciously overlooked what I sound like. ●– – Kris Kristofferson on why he won’t be doing any Cash-style covers albums.

Gretchen Wilson is reaching beyond country music for her upcoming ‘Right on Time’ album, but her new single ‘Still Rollin” proves that a wider palate doesn’t necessarily mean more creativity. ●– – Palate/palette confusion, courtesy of Taste of Country.

Well, a guy who was managing me a long time ago said that I couldn’t go pop with an a** full of firecrackers because of my voice. I always knew that I could do a lot of different styles of music, and my voice would always put it right back where it needs to be for me. ●– – In this respect, of course, Tim McGraw is exactly like Waylon Jennings. Cough.

It took me a while to really understand the legacy. Growing up, I was really not exposed to the music business. My dad would always say, ‘I’m not Bocephus, I’m Daddy.’ We would be on the farm, we would hunt, we would fish, but there were very few concerts when I was little. His concerts were so wild, he did not want us anywhere near them. People think we’d have breakfast with Garth [Brooks] and dinner with Waylon [Jennings]. The one person we did spend a lot of time with was Waylon, but it was only going to his pool in the summer and playing with the floaties. ●– – Holly Williams on growing up with Hank Jr.

I’ve always told my band to be down-to-earth and friendly with people. I always told them to never ignore anybody, because everybody’s equal and everybody pays the same price to get in to see you. That’s my main goal: to be good to my fans, to be good to everyone who comes to my shows. ●– – Ralph Stanley on treating fans right.

Specifically, as far as singing goes, I feel like everybody should want to sing like George Jones. You just try your hardest to sing like that. That’s what I do, anyway. ●– – Daniel Romano.